CHAPTER 510: CHAPTER 510. A MAZE OF LAVA RIVERS

Amon believed this detail meant something. An imperfection among perfection was as eye-glaring as a small blemish on a pure white dress. While accidents were mostly the common cause in such a situation, Amon didn’t believe it was the case here. This world was freshly made with each entry. It was not long enough for an accident to have occurred and caused this crack. This crack was placed here with a purpose.

After observing the pedestal a while longer, Amon decided to take the risk.

"Move back," he told Yang Li.

The two moved a few steps back before Amon threw one of his Alpha Flying Knives. The knife swirled in the air before accurately hitting the pedestal at the exact spot where the crack was.

A loud impact sound was heard. The pedestal broke, but not in a normal way. Instead of shattering at its top part, the fine crack enlarged and traveled downward. It continued down until it touched the ground. The part where the crack passed through chipped by itself and became a straight, narrow groove. The long, vertical groove from the top to the bottom of the pedestal became a pathway where the water from the bowl flowed down to the ground.

The water, however, stopped flowing after it reached the ground where the groove ended. Instead of spilling out due to gravity like normal water would, it just stopped flowing.

"Fascinating," Amon remarked. After he was sure there was no retaliatory mechanism from his assault, he approached the pedestal again to take a better look.

"What does this mean?" Yang Li asked. She also followed him and approached.

"This means we have to bring the water with a specific method," Amon answered.

"What method?" Yang Li asked again.

"By creating a waterway," Amon answered and slashed his crimson dagger at the same time. His slash hit the spot where the vertical groove ended before carving a path along the ground in a straight line. A channel was formed from his slash, and as he expected, the water continued flowing through that channel.

"We will continue cutting a groove on the ground until we reach Wu Di’s place," Amon informed. He walked to where the channel from his first slash ended and performed another slash, prolonging the channel. He continued doing this until the path forward was blocked by a river of lava.

"What now?" Yang Li asked.

After thinking for a while, Amon said, "It’s a maze."

"What is a maze?" Yang Li asked, confused.

"These rivers of lava are not meant for us. They are obstacles preventing us from leading the water to the exit points. You can see them as the walls of a maze. We have to navigate through the paths constrained by these rivers."

"Are you sure there is a path leading to the exit point? What if the rivers formed a closed path?" Yang Li asked.

"I saw a curved stone bridge crossing a river on my way here," Amon said. "The water can use that bridge to cross the river. I believe there is at least one fixed path to the exit point. However, there are multiple exit points, meaning there are multiple possible paths. Going to one might lead us further away from the other. If we don’t mind any exit point, it will be easier, but the one we are targeting is the one where Wu Di is. We must ensure we pick the right path before we make our move."

"How do we do that?" Yang Li asked. "And does it truly matter we must choose the one Wu Di is at? As the prince said yesterday, we will still get the same point if we use the other exit points."

"I have already explained why. Do not make me repeat myself," Amon replied.

"As you wish, boss," Yang Li said. "So, how do we proceed?"

Instead of answering, Amon flew up. Like what Wu Di discovered, he couldn’t fly very far into the sky.

He landed back and told Yang Li, "If we can fly high enough, we can see the entire setup of this maze. That way, we can map the correct path to our destination. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to do so."

Yang Li didn’t ask again what they should do. She remained quiet while Amon gave the matter a thought.

"We call everyone here except Wu Di," Amon said after thinking for a few seconds. "If we can’t map our paths by widening our vision, we will do it by combining the visions from multiple sources."

Yang Li didn’t quite understand what Amon meant, but she didn’t ask for an explanation. Amon proceeded to send a telepathic message to Xin Wuming, Huang San, and An Guan to congregate at his position.

The others were already on their way to Yang Li’s position. They only needed to find two things. Both had been discovered, so they no longer needed to wander around. Hence, they arrived at where Amon and Yang Li were waiting in less than an hour.

Amon waited for them to arrive without adding any additional channels to the water path. They had the choice to go left or right, to follow the flow of the lava or against it. He didn’t want to guess randomly. Picking the wrong path might cause them to be further away from their destination.

Amon explained the water mechanism after they arrived. He also told them what to do. They were told to spread out. Huang San and An Guan would go to the left, while Yang Li and Xin Wuming would go to the right. They were to follow the path without crossing the river. They could only cross if they found a bridge. If their paths were blocked again by another river, then they were to split again. If they encountered a dead end, they were to return to a previous junction and take another turn.

Amon told them to report to him the number of steps they took before they made a turn and the angle of the turn. He stayed near the pedestal to draw a map on the ground based on their reports. In this way, he could map this place little by little.

He told them to continue doing this until they found the path leading to Wu Di’s location. After ensuring everyone understood his plan, he sent them away. He looked for the nearby largest field available and stood by to receive the reports. He placed the tip of his ceremonial dagger on the ground and marked it as the starting point. After receiving the first report, he started drawing a line on the ground using his ceremonial dagger.

He drew it to scale based on the number of steps reported.

The others spent hours walking. By then, they had split and walked individually. Some had even backtracked after finding themselves stuck in a place surrounded by rivers of lava on most sides and saw no path forward. All the while, Amon drew a map on the ground based on their reports.

*

A day passed. Finally, someone had Wu Di in sight.

"What takes you so long? I have done nothing but sit here waiting for you, people," Wu Di told Xin Wuming.

"Shut up," Xin Wuming scolded. He was not in the mood to joke. He had only rested three hours since yesterday and spent the rest of the time walking.

"Jeez, no need to take your frustration on me when it was someone else who stepped on your tail," Wu Di responded.

"Do you see anywhere I can cross over to there?" Xin Wuming asked without entertaining Wu Di’s response.

Despite seeing one another, the two were separated by another river of lava. One that extends quite far without any bridges.

Wu Di shook his head. "Nope. I came here by flying. I didn’t pay attention to these rivers."

"In that case, I will head in this direction," Xin Wuming pointed to his left. "You go the opposite way. We will see which path gets us to the other side faster."

"Uh, boss man told me to stay put. Otherwise, the others might misread the destination."

"I’m already the closest. We should focus on finding the way for my path to reach you," Xin Wuming argued.

"I’m just following the order," Wu Di threw up his hands in a sign of defeat. "How about you ask boss man how to proceed?"

After a few moments of silence, Xin Wuming turned to the left. "I will try this way. You stay with the statue."

The left path took him quite a circle, but he finally found a path where there was a gap in the river where the lava flowed into the ground before coming up a few meters ahead. Using that gap, he finally arrived at where Wu Di was two hours after they last saw each other.

"Took you quite some while. Did you take a rest first or something?" Wu Di teased.

"Shut up," Xin Wuming gave him the same scolding. He turned away and sent a telepathic report to Amon while Wu Di silently giggled behind him.